A chef was killed by a bite from the disembodied head of an Indonesian spitting cobra. He had decapitated it 20 minutes earlier in preparation of a local dish. They say not to bite the hand that feeds you, the hand that eats you is another thing apparently.

People of normal height or taller might be inclined to assume, as that silly Randy Newman song put it, that “Short people got no reason to live.... Short people got nobody to love.”

As someone who never broke the 5-foot mark, I can attest that most assumptions about short people are just that: assumptions. Here are a few facts.

¶ Children who are naturally short are no less socially competent or intelligent than taller ones.

¶ Being short was no deterrent to the likes of Yuri Gagarin, who, at 5-foot-1, was the first man in space; the actor Danny DeVito or the pop singer Prince, both 5-2; former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, a mere 4-10; or George Stephanopoulos, TV correspondent and talk show host, just over 5 feet.

¶ Short people can run countries (though not necessarily well): Napoleon, Caesar, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco.

¶ Being short is no impediment to financial success: Ross Perot and Michael Bloomberg.

¶ Even professional basketball is not out of reach: Spud Webb, 5-6, and Muggsy Bogues, just 5-3.

Poverty, greed, anger, jealousy, pride, revenge. These are the usual suspects when it comes to discussing the causes of crime. In recent years, however, economists have started to investigate a different explanation for criminal activity: physical attributes.

A small band of economists has been studying how height, weight and beauty affect the likelihood of committing — or being convicted of — a crime. Looking at records from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, they have found evidence that shorter men are 20 to 30 percent more likely to end up in prison than their taller counterparts, and that obesity and physical attractiveness are linked to crime.

There is already a sizable stack of research that examines the connections between physical characteristics and the labor market. Economists have found, for example, that every inch of additional height is associated with a nearly 2 percent increase in earnings...